Sixty-seven students at Superior's Eldorado K-8 School will receive zeros on the writing portion of this year's CSAP test after an eighth-grade teacher broke the rules by having students prepare using topics copied from a previous year's test.

That practice is prohibited because Colorado Student Assessment Program questions are recycled from year to year and can show up on subsequent tests, which is what happened in this case, according to Boulder Valley officials.

District officials said they learned the teacher had used prohibited practice materials after a parent called the principal with concerns. The eighth-grade teacher, whose name hasn't been released because the incident is still being investigated, told administrators that she didn't know it was against the rules to copy questions from old tests for practice purposes.

"We are still trying to learn about how that misperception happened with her, and who might have told her that information," said Becky McClure, assistant superintendent of human resources. "There has been no determination of any maliciousness or anything unethical. It was just an honest misunderstanding on her part, and we're just making sure that everyone is corrected in their knowledge."

Invalidating 67 eighth-grade writing scores -- about half of the eighth-grade class -- will negatively affect the performance rankings of the school and the district because those scores will count as zeros.

"On behalf of Eldorado K-8, I apologize in advance for the disappointment this will cause our school when test scores are released in late July or early August," Principal Robyn Hamasaki wrote in an e-mail home to parents. "Please know that this unfortunate event does not detract from the pride we take in our students' high level of academic achievement and growth and does not reflect the high ethical standards to which we hold ourselves in test administration and all other facets of education."

CSAP tests are used by the state to measure student progress, rank schools and comply with the federal "No Child Left Behind" legislation. Tests in reading, writing and math are given to third- through eighth-graders, and science tests are given to fifth-, eighth- and 10th-graders.

More than 82 percent of Eldorado's eighth-graders scored proficient or above on the writing portion of the CSAP exam last year. That's better than both the district and state averages.

This year's CSAP tests were administered to middle school students starting March 2, said Brigitte Mutter, Boulder Valley assistant director of research and assessment. One practice writing topic the teacher gave students on Feb. 23 showed up on a real CSAP test March 4. A second practice writing topic the teacher gave students on March 1 showed up on a real CSAP test March 9, Mutter said.

Students are given three writing topics on the CSAP test, and Mutter said the entire writing portion for the affected eighth-graders will be invalidated, even if they only saw one of the three topics in advance. The students' reading, math and science scores will not be affected.

Although those students' writing scores will be invalidated for state purposes, Mutter said the district is making the results available to parents who want to know how well their students performed.

Every year, Mutter said, a few Boulder Valley scores are invalidated for things like scheduling errors.

"But we haven't had a large number like this for many years," she said.

Last year, district officials investigated staff at Broomfield's Kohl Elementary for not following procedure while administering CSAP tests in 2008, but results in that case were not affected.

According to the district investigation, Kohl Principal Cindy Kaier inadvertently broke the rules by letting teachers view the CSAP test booklet one school day before students took the tests. Prior to the 2007-08 school year, teachers were allowed to see the booklet within 24 hours before the test, but that rule changed in 2008 to allow teachers to handle the book only on the day of the test.

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